nick's blog

My right-hand man at the Kailyard, Colin Halliday, is taking our first ever Kailyard class at the Cook School on 19th March, from 11-2pm for a bargain £60. You’ll cook and eat one of the restaurant’s most popular signature dishes, Pan Fried Scrabster Halibut with confit potatoes, baby leeks and shrimp butter sauce. We’ll also demonstrate and serve to you, Passion fruit pots, macerated berries and kaffir lime syrup. And all for a bargain £60.

Colin has trained the chefs at the Kailyard (our restaurant at Doubletree Hilton at Dunblane Hydro) to create my dishes to perfection. And now you’ve got a chance to learn the trade secrets and recreate your own fab fine dining experience at home. Don’t miss this one. Sure to be great.

Book by calling the Cook School on 01877 389 900, or click here.

For info on the Kailyard restaurant, including menus and booking, click here.

My first ever pop-up restaurant is happening this week – 31st Jan at the Cook School in Port of Menteith – still 6 places left. Call 01877 389 900 to book your place. I’m cooking seared scallop & chorizo picante, cullen skink tartlets, salad of winter veg and rare roast beef fillet, truffle & horseradish, miso roast salmon udon noodles, squid shrimp and soy broth, passionfruit brulee, burnt orange salad. It’s  £49 a head and will (hopefully!) be v informal, buzzy and fun with a bit of self service on drinks/coffee. Pay on booking, buy wine on the night. V excited about this – feels like a great thing to be doing. The plan is for me and senior Cook School tutors John Webber, Tristan Campbell & Colin Halliday to take turns every monthish to cook the best possible meal for 24 guests – and you can guarantee that we’ll be competing to cook the best meal, so the standard will be very high! Future dates and info will appear first on Facebook.

Hope to see you there. xNick

This is a lovely new year soup. It’s called Tom Yam Goong in Thailand and is full of fragrant and spicy flavours. It gives you a cleansed inside feeling that comes from those essential Thai ingredients: galangal or ginger, chilli, lemon grass, coriander and lime, which provide an almost medicinal quality.

Enjoy. xNick

Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup

Serves 2

125g shrimps/prawns (about 6), shelled and de-veined, shells reserved for the stock
420ml water
1 garlic clove, minced
2 dried kaffir lime leaves
a few thin slices fresh galangal or ginger
Thai fish sauce to taste
1 stalk of lemon grass (lower 1/3 of stalk, snap off the hard part)
1 shallot, finely sliced
25g straw mushrooms, sliced (if available)
1 red Bird’s Eye chilli, or 1-2 green Thai chillies, finely chopped
25ml lime juice, freshly squeezed
handful of coriander, freshly chopped
2 spring onions, sliced at an angle

First take the prawn shells and place into a thick-based pot and add the 420ml of cold water, the lime leaves and the outer husk of the lemon grass. Keep the soft centre aside for later. Bring to the boil and remove from the heat; strain and reserve the liquor.

Add the garlic, galangal or ginger, chopped centre of lemon grass and the shallot, and simmer for about 30 seconds. Next add the chopped chilli peppers and mushrooms and gently simmer for another 30 seconds.

Add the raw shelled prawns and again simmer for around 1-2 minutes or until the prawns are cooked. Finally, add the lime juice, spring onion and chopped coriander and finish with Thai fish sauce to taste (a few drops should be plenty). To serve, ladle carefully into warmed individual deep bowls, with a slice of lime on the side for those who like extra tang.

And a belated happy new year to you all.

Christmas isn’t Christmas without a bite of smoked salmon. Easy peasy canape recipe here. If you’re snowed under with other jobs, you can buy pretty good blinis rather than make them, but they honestly don’t take long and aren’t difficult. It goes without saying that they’re best of all made with our own Cook School home-smoked salmon! But other Scottish Smoked Salmons are available… Oh and this festive fare is unbeatable with a glass of fizz.

Here you go then… Happy Christmas everyone!

Smoked Scottish Salmon Blinis with Chive and Horseradish Crème Fraiche

Makes 12-16 canapés
400g best smoked Scottish salmon
a few salad leaves
olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice to dress the salad
a few sprigs of chervil, chives or dill
salt and pepper

For the blinis
150ml milk
115g warm mashed potato
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
sprinkle nutmeg
1 free range egg (we like Cluckhen Brilliant eggs)
1 free range egg yolk
85g plain flour
knob butter

For the horseradish and chive crème fraiche
60g crème fraiche
2 tbsp creamed horseradish (or 1 tbsp finely grated fresh horseradish)
a few chopped chives
lemon juice

To make the blini batter, place the milk and potato into a large bowl and blend with a stick liquidiser. Next add in the egg, egg yolk, salt, pepper and nutmeg and blend again. Finally, add the flour and give the mixture one final blast. Cover and place in the fridge until ready to cook.

Meanwhile, put the crème fraiche in a bowl and mix in the creamed horseradish (or fresh). Add the chives and lemon juice and season to taste.

To cook the blinis, heat a little butter in a frying pan. Add spoonfuls of the blini batter and fry for 1-2 minutes on each side until golden brown. Or, even better, put the batter in a squeezy bottle and carefully squirt out a small amount straight into the hot frying pan to make perfect circles.

To serve, place the warm blinis onto a plate. Top each with a spoonful of horseradish and chive crème fraiche and a few dressed salad leaves. Carefully arrange thin slices of smoked salmon on the leaves then add a twist of black pepper, a sprig of dill (or whatever you have – chives, chervil), and a fine sliver of lemon peel if you fancy. Hand out to your loved ones and enjoy.

If you missed Saturday Kitchen last weekend, you can watch on the iplayer here. Lots of fun as usual, and 17 seconds on the omelette challenge not too disasterous!

And for those who simply want the Lobster Baked Potato recipe, you can find it here.

And for those of you saying, eh? Lobster Baked Potato…? it’s a fab, creamy, lemony, mustardy take on Lobster Thermidor… and very simple to make. With cooked lobster at under a tenner a pop at Lidl, a family supper option, too. Take a look.

What’s your favourite Lobster Recipe? Love to hear some suggestions?

This is a Malay style curry, and it really is delicious.  I made it for Landward’s Christmas Special last week – for a 4-part cooking segment starting this Fri (2nd Dec 7pm BBC2 Scotland), showing what to do with the turkey so that no part is left unused. Without further ado, here’s how to make it:
Ingredients
For the Spice Powder:
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
6 black peppercorns
6 cloves
5cm piece cinnamon stick
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp turmeric

For the onion paste:
3 medium onions, chopped
8 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
6 fresh red chillis
1 tsp sweet paprika
2 tbsp chopped or ground almonds
3 sticks lemon grass, chopped
5 tbsp vegetable oil
400g butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
3 large carrots, peeled and cubed
300g new potatoes, halved
1 medium aubergine, cubed
1 tsp Maldon salt
1 400g can coconut milk
4 ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 large bunch fresh coriander, chopped to garnish

Put the coriander seed, cumin seed, fennel seed, black peppercorns, cloves cinnamon and nutmeg into a heavy frying pan and dry roast over a medium heat until you can smell the aroma – don’t let them change colour or the flavour will change too and become bitter. Tip the whole lot into a spice grinder (or a clean coffee grinder for this, remember it will never be the same. It will become as spice grinder from that moment on..) Stir in the turmeric and set aside.

Throw the onions, garlic, ginger, chillies, paprika, almonds and chopped lemon grass into a food processor. Add about 3 tablespoons of the oil and blend to a paste. You may need to add a couple of tablespoons of water to loosen the mixture, and make it work – don’t worry if you add more, it will evaporate during cooking.

Heat the rest of the oil in a large sauté pan. Add the onion paste and fry for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the spice mixture then the pumpkin, carrots, potato, and aubergines, coating with the onions and spices. Fry until the onion begin to turn brown, then add the salt and 500ml water. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk and tomatoes and simmer for another 15 minutes, until the sauce is thickened and the vegetables are very tender.

With 5 minutes to go add the cooked turkey and mix well to ensure it heats through. Finally, scatter the coriander over the curry and serve with plain boiled rice or flatbreads.

Love to see your pics if you make this one. xNick

Ok, so I’m blowing my own trumpet a bit here, but this is a great little (Lidl…) twist on traditional roast turkey, with spiced apples, cranberries and cider cream.

In recent years, I’ve quite often cooked a goose for Christmas, but this year I’m going full-on old-fashioned turkey and all the trimmings. I seem to have been cooking quite a few turkeys lately. One for this recipe for Lidl – click here for the recipe - and a whole host of big bird recipes for Landward (due to be shown in 4 parts every Friday until Christmas from Dec 2 on BBC2 Scotland, 7pm). Did some great filming for that one, starting with roast turkey, followed by making a top-notch stock, then a mellow risotto with some of that lovely stock and lastly a fab curry with flatbreads.

What’s everyone else cooking up for Christmas Day? Still haven’t decided on a starter…

I have to admit, in my house, it’s usually Mrs Nairn who does most of the Christmas shopping. (I get to cook on the big day itself.) Having said that I have noticed that modern Christmas shopping mostly involves trawling the web, click, click, clicking away, with a variety of oddly sized brown boxes turning up soon after.

Well, for all you stocking-filler hunters out there, the Cook School online shop is fully stocked with a massive range of foodie-related kit. And I can assure you that everything has been carefully chosen. What I’m saying is… no rubbish. It’s all tried, tested, stylish stuff, but not necessarily expensive. For example, I’ve just popped down to check everything out myself and these pastry brushes are just £6.50 a pop, or there are some lovely oven mitts for under £6, plus bargain silicone spatulas galore, and stonking kitchen knives, All-Clad pans, speciality foodie bits and bobs, Cook School Vouchers and souvenirs and much more. Everything really, up to and including your Falcon range cooker – and even a Kitchens International kitchen if you’re thinking really big. You can also pop in to shop in person at Port of Menteith if you’re more of a touchy feely shopper. Happy shopping! Click here to shop. xNick

Lidl partridges are in the shops now – wait till Christmas or practise on this Sunday’s roast with my roast partridge, Prosciutto and Port Gravy with root veg. There really are some fab ingredients for the festive season on sale. Pannettone, Pandoro, lobster, turkeys, goose, moose, Italian ham! Lovely.

Check out the recipe here.

Many more recipes there, too, from me and from Lesley Waters. Soft choc cake, Butterscotch trifle, spicy prawn starters and much more.

Join me on Tues evening for a dem at the Aga Shop in Edinburgh, 51 Frederick Street, Edinburgh EH2 1LH. Canapes, cooking, bubbly, good chat, useful Aga info, useful tips for all cooks. Just £30 – either at 12.30 or 6.30pm.

To book, call 0131 2257293 or email edinburgh@aga-web.co.uk

Hope to see you there. xNick